NOTEWORTHY

Drugstore Cowboy

A crew of pill-popping outcasts knocks off pharmacies in the Pacific Northwest and forms a makeshift family in Gus Van Sant’s breakthrough movie from 1989 (“My Own Private Idaho,” “Good Will Hunting”). He infuses James Fogle’s source novel with the jittery nervousness of its protagonists: This is a film constantly itching for its next fix. But he captures the harrowing lows of addiction with equal vividness (and a fair amount of gallows humor), arriving at a message of hope that is refreshingly free of “just say no” bromides. Matt Dillon is electrifying in the leading role; the writer William S. Burroughs is chilling in a third-act cameo. — Jason Bailey